


it's like picking up trash in dresses

by piratekelly



Series: what a beautiful mess this is [3]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Domestic, Family Feels, Gen, Grace PoV, Insinuated Homophobia, M/M, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 00:30:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7991968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piratekelly/pseuds/piratekelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grace just wants the world to see what she sees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's like picking up trash in dresses

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, it's me again. Sick of me yet? Once again, this is unbeta'd, a fun little side project for myself while I tap away at bigger things. I wanted to explore how Grace might see this relationship, so I had two glasses of wine and typed this out on my phone. Title is, once again, from Jason Mraz's "A Beautiful Mess."

\--

 

Grace pretends to be surprised when her dad tells her that he’s more than friends with Uncle Steve. She think she succeeds, but it takes a lot of effort, if she’s being honest: be enthused, but not too much; slightly confused, but not to the point of being rude; happy, but a tad reserved. She’s aiming for what she hopes is an “appropriate” response to her dad essentially coming out to her when for her it’s not the biggest surprise.

 

He sits across from her, staring at his hands and fidgeting as the silence hangs in the air between them like a physical weight, and it occurs to her that Danno doesn’t need a perfect response to this conversation. What he needs - what he  _ wants  _ \- is her approval, her blessing, whatever he needs to be assured that he’s not making a mistake. Looking back, all the important decisions he’s ever made were made with her best interest in mind: moving to Hawaii, taking the job with Five-0 because it paid better and because it made him like his job again, fighting her mom for custody, just to name a few. Now he’s essentially asking if it’s okay that he do something with  _ both  _ of them in mind, and it makes her a little bit sad.

 

She tells him that it’s okay, this change, that Steve became family long before this was ever a possibility. She tells him that she just wants him to be happy, and it’s true. It’s been so long since she felt like her dad was really happy, like he was before things started falling apart, before things between her dad and her mom got bitter and mean, and she wants to see him move on from that. He’s the best dad in the world and she loves him, and she wants all the same things for him that he wants for her.

 

It’s the easiest truth she’s ever told, and when her father reaches out and pulls her into his chest, she can feel him relaxing with every passing second. She smiles and burrows further into his embrace because she loves hugs, and if she is anything, she is definitely her father’s daughter. They stay like that for a long moment, just sharing the same space and taking comfort in each other, and she’ll stay here for as long as she needs to if it’ll make him believe that she means it.

 

He pulls away from her eventually, kisses her forehead like he always does, and sends her off to brush her teeth.

 

\--

 

When she crawls into bed later that night, she’s exhausted. It’s tiring, biting your tongue so you don’t tell your lovely, warm hearted father that the only people who didn’t see this coming were Danno and Steve. It would be rude, and she doesn’t want to ruin this moment for him. It’s obviously a big deal, something he takes seriously enough to sit down and lay it all out for her, and it wasn’t the place for a joke. 

 

(But honestly. She’s thirteen now and she’s been raised by detectives for half her life. A complete stranger could have seen what was going on from five miles away. Steve and Danno are a lot of things, but subtle is not one of them.)

 

Her last thought before sleep claims her is whether or not this shift in dynamic will change their day to day lives, but even if it does, it couldn’t possibly be bad.

 

\--

 

For the most part nothing really changes at all. She still gets up and goes to school, goes to cheer practice, comes home and eats dinner and does her homework. Sometimes she plays with Charlie, others she’ll sit in her room and surf YouTube for a while before going to bed. The dynamic in their house hasn’t changed at all, and while she hasn’t dedicated a lot of her time to thinking about it, she finds it weird that they don’t see Steve more than they usually do.

 

She wants to bring it up to Danno, wants to tell him that it’s okay to have Steve over more often, wants to reassure him that she meant it when she said it was no big deal. She has friends at school who have two moms or two dads and she’s never thought anything of it. Grace has seen Danno and Steve argue, both out of love and a need for one of them to prove they’re right, and she knows that no one gets that riled up unless they really matter. They matter to each other, and they matter to Grace, and if they’re going to do this, they’re all going to do it together.

 

“Danno?” she asks a few nights later over dinner. He made lasagna, with the special sauce, just the way she likes it.

 

Danny hums in response, signaling for her to continue while he chews.

 

“Why doesn’t unc--” Is she still supposed to call him uncle? Steve’s her dad’s boyfriend now, and calling him uncle just feels…  _ weird _ now. She’ll have to think about a new name for him later. “Why hasn’t Steve come over?”

 

“Um,” he says, seemingly lost for words. 

 

Grace just goes on like he hadn’t said anything at all. “You know it’s okay right? That Steve comes over just to see you?”

 

“Um, yes?”

 

“Then invite him next time. There’s too much lasagna for just us.”

 

Danny chuckles, but he agrees. 

 

\--

 

Their day to day lives change so little that it's almost like her dad basically coming out to her never happened at all. They don't see Steve - or anyone else from the team, for that matter - any more often than they used to, but when they do she doesn't see a public display of affection outside of the occasional glance that lingers just a little too long to be shared between friends. Steve still goes home after Wednesday night dinner, though her father now follows him to the door instead of just waving goodbye from the kitchen. She never follows them, much as she wants to; she suspects that they're still adjusting, or maybe they think it'll freak her out, seeing them be openly affectionate with each other. There's a difference, she knows, between acknowledging a relationship and being ready to share it with the world. They've passed step one, and for now, that's enough. 

 

A month later, when she wakes up on Sunday morning and Steve is standing in her kitchen wearing nothing but sleep pants and a smile, her heart tightens in her chest. He looks happy, scrambling eggs on the stovetop, the pop and hiss of bacon interrupting the early morning silence, and it makes her smile. She doesn't see him this relaxed all that often; Danno has told her that Steve's life has been unfair, and that it dulls a person's light, and now it's their job to try to bring it back. She wonders if that would change if he knew she was watching him from around the corner, but she’s not determined to find out.

 

When her dad moves around the island and presses a kiss to Steve's shoulder as he walks by, Steve lights up like the sun, and she knows that everything is going to be okay. 

 

\--

 

For the most part, she's right. Life goes on, and everyone continues to be happy, healthy, and alive.

 

And then, months after that morning in the kitchen, Danno and Steve hold hands in public for the first time, and things are decidedly not okay. 

 

Occasionally a bystander will stare, another will whisper, they get the occasional person muttering something insulting as they pass by, and Grace hates it. Her dad is happy, and Steve is happy, and the world is trying to strip that from them as though they actually get a say. It's a beautiful day in Hawaii, Grace is with the people she loves most in this world, and she isn't going to let someone take this joy from her family. 

 

She wants to tell them that staring is mean, that judging is worse and they should concern themselves with things that are more important than two guys loving each other. Most importantly, she wants to say that just because you see two people who might not be meant to go together - two people who are so fundamentally opposite of each other that a relationship  _ should _ never work - doesn't mean that they  _ can't _ . 

 

She doesn't have to intervene, as much as she'd love to tell that old lady standing by the shave ice stand to go suck a lemon, because Danno and Steve take a stand for themselves. One minute they're walking next to her, quietly discussing what they should have for dinner that night, and the next they're behind her, locked in an embrace so tight that not even air could break through. 

 

And then Steve leans in and kisses her dad so gently that all she can do is squeal in delight. Even after all these months they're still not very openly affectionate with each other, opting to keep most of the romance inside the walls of Steve's house - a house that's quickly filling up with Williams - in order to keep their public personas and their private lives as separate as possible. The kiss goes on for what seems like a second and a lifetime all at once, and when they pull apart from each other, they're grinning like loons, laughing and smiling and without a care in the world. 

 

She lets them have their moment, just a little while longer, before running back to them, taking them both by the hand and leading them to Kamekona's truck for dinner. Something like this deserves to be shared with family, so that's where they'll go. 

 

(If she happens to turn around and stick her tongue out at the old lady while no one is looking, well, that's between them.)

 

\--

 

After more than six months they've all but moved into Steve's house, and Grace feels right at home. Charlie lives with their mom, so he has a room here even though he doesn't stay much, but when he does he lays awake and counts the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling until he drifts off. Grace's room has a window that overlooks the ocean, and she regularly wakes up to the sound crashing waves as they hit the beach. She is content to stay here forever, in a house they're slowly but surely turning into a home. 

 

Sunday morning pancakes become a staple almost immediately. Steve makes the best pancakes, in all different shapes and flavors, and while her father does make good omelettes, Steve has turned breakfast into a spectacle. Danno has always said that the best memories are always made in the kitchen, and she's starting to believe him. 

 

Today she winds up with flour in her hair, and Danno has a streak of whipped cream across his cheek, and Steve grins like a madman because he put it there. He made it to the kitchen first, making a mess along the way, so while her dad grumbled about who was going to clean it all up, Steve was celebrating getting to choose the extra pancake ingredient this time. He opted for a healthy split of blueberry and a separate stack of chocolate. She tucks in, eating until she feels like she's going to explode, and then excuses herself to take a nap in the chair in the living room. 

 

When she wakes up an hour later, bleary eyed but comfortable, she's met with the sight of her father asleep on the couch, one arm slung over Steve's hips, trapped between Steve’s body and the back of the couch, basking in the glory of a true lazy Sunday. Steve's not one for napping unless he has to, so to see him practically melted into the couch makes her smile. 

 

She knew going into this that it wasn't always going to be sunshine and rainbows, because nothing in life is that perfect. Her parents are a perfect example of a good thing gone sour, and she's not naive enough to think that it can't happen again, but something about this feels different. This feels right, not just that her dad is happy, but that Steve seems to fit so seamlessly into their lives that she can't imagine her days without him anymore. He’s taken over helping her with her science homework, has kept up her surfing lessons under her dad’s careful supervision, and reads to her at night when she asks him to. As far as she's concerned, this is as close to perfect as anything can get. So she hunkers down under the blanket someone laid on top of her and closes her eyes. 

 

Forget what anyone else might say, she thinks to herself. These people, the ones right here in this room, are the only ones who matter. 

 

\--

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang with me at piratefalls.tumblr.com and we'll chat about these idiots and all the goodness that comes with them.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love.


End file.
